I shared this post on Facebook on the 1st of July 2016, and because of the many positive reactions I decided to share it here too. I hope this writing empowers you too, wherever you are and whatever you are struggling with. – Usha

I found this beautiful picture of dawn/sunrise on the site of Boheems Paradijs (www.boheemsparadijs.nl), they own the copyright of this picture. Must be a beautiful place!

On the 1st of July, we celebrate the abolition of African slavery in the Dutch colonies, officially declared on July 1st, 1863, and made effective on July 1st, 1873, when other cheap indentured labourers from India were imported to work on the plantations and lived in disguised slavery.

The chains are gone, but if you take a good look around in our Surinamese and Dutch society and in the rest of the world, you can see that mental slavery is a state of mind that is too common. The invisible chains in ourselves are powerful.

“You were born into a prison for your mind.” The choice we have in life, is powerfully visualised in this scene of The Matrix. Do you choose the blue pill, or the red pill? “Remember, all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.”

Bob Marley (and so many others) told us: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.” He knew, because he choose the red pill.

So did I, and some other people I know personally, or that I know through their writing or art or actions. We look around and see The Matrix, and we see the chained minds around us. And we keep doing what we have to do, because there is no other choice once you have embraced ‘the truth’, firmly based in light and love. There are no escapes or short cuts for red pill people, like when you have taken the blue pill, which stands for escapism.

But everywhere, there are red pill people too! I know we make the difference. I know more and more people wake up every day. Because that is what live on earth is all about: to grow from unconsciousness to consciousness. In this life or another. Every day, when we wake up, we have the opportunity to make better choices, because that is the grace of life. A person who finally understood that, was the person that gave us the powerful hymn “Amazing Grace”.

John Newton, born in 1725, was a slave trader. “In 1788, 34 years after he had retired from the slave trade, Newton broke a long silence on the subject with the publication of a forceful pamphlet ‘Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade’, in which he described the horrific conditions of the slave ships during the Middle Passage. He apologized for “a confession, which … comes too late … It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.” (Wikipedia)

After he came into consciousness, he supported the abolition of slavery. And from his transformation into consciousness came the hymn that we know as “Amazing Grace”. It was published in 1779. And it is very popular among those whose African ancestors have endured slavery. When you think of it, you feel the power of transformation. And you get goosebumps, when you know the history and hear president Barack Obama sing it. He is a red pill person too.

Knowing stories like these fill my heart with red pill-power. I wish you all a freed mind and heart in this life, and connections born from and firmly based in love and light. You will feel the difference, once you have made the choice to step into light and take charge and be courageous. Remember: a new dawn, a new day, a new chance, every day! ♥